Line Graph Maker

A free line graph maker for trends and comparisons

This line graph maker plots the numbers in your table as one or more lines, so you can see how something changes from one point to the next: a plant growing week by week, monthly sales, temperatures through the day, marks across terms. Type the values or paste cells from Excel or Google Sheets and the graph redraws immediately.

Plot up to eight series on one graph, give each its own colour and marker shape, add axis titles and value labels, smooth the curves, shade the area under the lines or space the points by their real x values. Then download a sharp PNG, an editable SVG or a vector PDF, or print it. The graph is drawn in your browser, and your data never leaves your device.

How to use the Line Graph Maker

1. Edit the example table or press Start blank. Each row is one point on the x axis; each column is one line.
2. Add more lines with Add series, and rename each one in the column header. Paste cells from a spreadsheet, or open Paste or open a CSV for comma, tab or semicolon text with a header row.
3. Write the title and the x and y axis names. Leave a cell blank where a value is missing: the line stops and restarts instead of drawing a false value.
4. Switch markers, smooth curves, shaded area, value labels and gridlines on or off. Use Space points by x value when the x labels are numbers such as years.
5. Press Download PNG, SVG or PDF, or Print. “Data as CSV” saves the table.

Line Graph Maker features

How the line graph is drawn

The y axis covers the smallest to the largest value with a “nice” step (1, 2 or 5 times a power of ten) so the gridlines fall on round numbers. If all values are positive and the smallest is no more than half the largest, the axis starts at zero; otherwise it starts just below the minimum so the lines are not squashed. Shading under the lines always includes zero. Points are joined in the order of the rows, so enter them in the order you want them plotted, normally oldest first.

With Smooth curves on, a monotone cubic curve passes through every point. It is only a drawing aid: the curve between two points is not a measurement, so leave it off when the straight steps matter. With many points the x labels are thinned automatically, and the graph grows wider than the panel so you can scroll or use Fit.

When to use a line graph

Use a line graph when the horizontal axis is ordered, usually time, and you want to show a trend, a rise or fall, or how several series move together. For comparing separate categories a bar graph is clearer, and for parts of a whole use a pie chart. To draw a mathematical function such as y = 2x + 3 from its formula rather than from a table, use the function grapher; to find the slope between two points, try the slope calculator.

• Limit a graph to about four or five lines; label them in the legend or by using different markers.
• Do not connect points when the x values are unrelated categories; a bar graph says that honestly.
• Use value labels sparingly: they help on a handful of points and clutter a long series.
• Keep the y axis starting at zero when you compare sizes, and say so in the axis title if you cut it.